book by bob woodward. it shows the president was searching for a way out even as they were debating to put more troops in. some explosive details from the book "obama's wars" ahead. the o'donnell campfiring back this morning. the candidate for senate in delaware with the hopes of the tea party on her shoulders says she did not violate election ethics and that her opponent and the national media are just out to get her. super salmon. the government is considering whether to allow a company that has tinkered with the genetic material of salmon to make it grow faster, bigger, can sell it in stores for human consumption. would you eat it? we're going to break down the bitter debate whether it's safe for your dinner plate. as it is every day, the a.m. fix blog is up and running this morning. join the live conversation right now, go to cnn.com/amfix.

>> let us know whether you'd eat that salmon. we've been talking about it in the newsroom. >> you could eat more of it for the same price. would you want to? we begin with the big buzz in washington over a new book by bob woodward, it's called "obama's wars" and paints a picture of a president who was anxious to get out of afghanistan. >> ed henry joins us live from the big house on pennsylvania avenue this morning with the developing story. ed, if the story is accurate and bob woodward is known to be accurate, this president has had a touchy relationship with his top military people. >> you're right. we don't have a copy of the book yet, but it has a track record, published a couple dozen books, most of them considered pretty darn accurate. this is going to be a difficult story for this white house to

handle. if you go through the details of this. broad brush we've known that there's division, there has been division, there's division in every administration over war, policy, et cetera. the extent, the details spilling out cannot be good for the white house. for example, one bit that's quoted this morning. the president at one point saying "i want an exit strategy. i can't lose the whole democratic party" that basically there was political pressure on him to come up with this beginning of a withdrawal date. another point the president allegedly saying "i'm done doing this." the context being he was allegedly facing even more pressure after agreeing to send some 30,000 more u.s. troops late last year. the military was trying to force him to send even more. and he said i'm done doing this. secondly, the book quotes richard holbrook, one of the president's top advisers saying "it can't work" in terms of the president's broad strategy. having that kind of second guessing within the administration is not helpful. and finally at one point, vice president biden is allegedly

quoted saying about richard holbrook "the most egotistical bastard i've ever met." so some back fighting. again, we've known that there was division, but the extent of it, the details spilling out now is going to be a difficult story for this white house to deal with. >> yeah. i mean, i was thinking about it a different way. maybe i'm wrong, there was a lot of criticism of the bush administration for not having enough internal questioning amongst each other about the decision to go to iraq or even what was going on in afghanistan. is this a little bit, perhaps not as bad as some are painting it out to be given the vast majority of the american public also are looking for a way out of afghanistan? >> sure. it's a good question. you're right, that criticism out there about the bush administration. i bet we'll see some obama officials saying, look, we're hashing this out. it's messy, it isn't pretty. you know, making war policy never is. on the other hand, allegedly having people who are part of

crafting that strategy and that policy second guessing whether or not it's going to work after the fact is still troublesome. number two, the timing of this, they've known this book is coming out. the president did interviews, other top officials did interviews. but coming out now, the book is supposed to be published on monday, right before the president heads late today to new york for the general assembly. hep wants to be talking about iran and israeli/palestinian peace, instead they're going to be going to be hit by questions about the war in afghanistan. here we are just a few weeks away from these big midterm elections where they want to talk about the economy, now another story may pull them off that track. john, kiran in. >> ed, keep us posted on what the white house has to say about this this morning. >> absolutely. >> thanks so much for getting up with us. by the way, we have a piece, ed does on cnn.com this morning.

thanks, ed. >> absolutely. to the most politics now at five minutes after the hour. and a midterm race in the national spotlight, senate candidate and tea party star christine o'donnell is speaking out after sidestepping our questions about bills that she paid with campaign cash. she sat down with shawn hannety of fox news. >> she said it was her last national tv interview. she also tried to clear the air about the days she said she dabbled in witchcraft. >> bill maher, a friend of yours, obviously. you did his show a lot, unfortunately. >> yeah, apparently. >> he comes up with this tape in 1999. talking about a boyfriend when you were a teenager. >> right. >> saying that you had dabbled into witchcraft.

why don't you explain for people. what was that about? >> well, teenage rebellion. you know, some people dabble in drugs to rebel, that's how i rebelled. >> all the talk you've got to do this national show, that national show. is that off the table for you? >> it's off the table. that's not going to help me get votes. i want to go to as many town hall forums, church picnics that i can fit into my schedule so i can meet the voters. >> we also heard from chris coons last night on john king usa. he weighed in whether this talk about witchcraft is relevant in the current race. >> i really don't think so. i think it's up to the voters from delaware when they go into the booth six weeks from now to decide what things are relevant when they make a decision. this really is a job interview. and what i've heard over the last nine months is folks want to know is what experience do you have? what ideas do you have to get us

back on track and get this economy fixed? >> coons has been forced to answer questions about his past, as well. he had to deny allegations from conservative bloggers and radio hosts that he's quote a bearded marxist. he said it was an inside joke within his family because he was a democrat, and they were teasing him about it. >> so we have things that were done in high school and things that were written in the early days of college. are they really relevant in 2010? >> wait until the whole facebook crowd starts to run for office, right? i don't know if anyone will be able to keep up with all of that. >> that's why you have to be careful what you post on facebook. >> very true. let's get a quick check of the weather headlines. rob marciano again this morning. >> good morning, guys. >> what's the size of the closet? you know? i have a very large one. >> let's stay away from that, that's for sure. guys, we had record highs across

much of the south yesterday. and some of those temperatures are going to be sneaking up towards the east coast. today, the first official day of fall, actually it arrives later on this evening. and these numbers reminiscent of august and july. pinson, alabama, columbia, south carolina, 98, birmingham, alabama, record level, as well. some severe weather to the northern tier, maybe a thunderstorm the northeast later on today, but it'll be warm and toasty as fall arrives i think around 11:00 tonight. i've got to check the actual autumnal clock. we all got one for graduating weather school. i'll have a look at that. >> they're extending it as long as possible, it's 11:09. >> a lot of folks are happy to see it go. >> but, of course, here in new york, we're going to be basking in summer temperatures for the next few days. >> yeah, it's going to be toasty. keep your bikini shorts on. well, the dad who stormed

the school bus to stick up for his daughter says he's sorry for doing it. you might have seen the video. james jones says as a parent he felt like his back was up against a wall, but he went at it the wrong way. have a look at what happened. >> now everybody sit down. everybody sit down. show me which one. show me which one. i'm going to [ bleep ] you up and everybody on this -- this is my daughter and i will -- if anything happens to my daughter i'm going to [ bleep ] you up and everybody on this [ bleep ]. >> that outburst he apologized for and said it was not the right thing to do has ignited a debate on how to handle bullies. many can imagine as a parent knowing that your child was being teased, especially a child with a disability, which is his kids. >> she had cerebral palsy, right? >> right. and he was upset, but he could actually face jail time for that rant. he's going to be joining us along with his attorney 40 minutes past the hour with more on what happened that day, what happened to his daughter leading

up to it, and how the school district is handling it. still to come on the most news in the morning, he's an influential pastor, he has thousands of followers. he's a strong voice in the conservative movement. ed lavandera with an exclusive on sex abuse chargers against bishop eddie long. that story next. helps restore collagen depleted skin to undo the look of a year's worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. clinical skincare. neutrogena®.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. we're following developments in a cnn story we broke yesterday. a spiritual leader of a prominent atlanta church now facing sex abuse charges. >> two separate lawsuits allege that bishop eddie long, a pastor with a 33,000 member church used his position to coerce two men into sexual relationships when they were teenagers. our ed lavandera broke this story. he's live in atlanta this morning with the cnn exclusive. ed, for those who don't know him, bishop long is a very big name in the evangelical church, particularly there in georgia. >> well, absolutely. he leads a huge megachurch. he's really created a multimillion dollar spiritual empire. he writes books, he runs several youth academies, and that sort of thing. when coretta scott king, the wife of the reverend martin luther king passed away a few years ago, the family held her funeral in his church. this is a man who is revered by

his followers in his church. and it is one of those modern day mega churches that he leads. so these accusations and these two lawsuits brought by a 20-year-old former church member by the name of maurice robinson and a 21-year-old former church member by the name of anthony flag are very shocking indeed to the members of his church. new birth missionary baptist church outside of atlanta, georgia. they've accused the pastor of using his spiritual authority to coerce them and manipulate them into having sexual relationships with him that started when he was 17 or 18. we're not looking at anything criminal at this point. the legal age of consenting to a relationship is 16 in the state of georgia. so this is a story that is really just starting to develop. and people are starting to get their -- wrap their head around it. of course, bishop eddie long, as

his power and prestige has grown, he's become a very strong voice in conservative social politics, speaking out and leading marches in atlanta against gay marriage and that sort of thing. so that's obviously another thing that adds a layer of texture here to this story, which is quite fascinating. john and kiran? >> what's bishop long saying about these accusations? >> well, we spoke with his attorney and a spokesman for him as well late yesterday. and they say the bishop adamantly denies these accusations. they find it regretful and sad that these two men have chosen to go down this path with a legal lawsuit. they say they're still reviewing the lawsuits, as well, that might have more to say after they do that. >> yeah. and is there any proof? or is this more of a he said/he said situation? >> well, the attorney representing these two young men say they have e-mails and texts and that sort of thing. the details of it weren't really released in the two lawsuits. but they do in these lawsuits document a long string of visits

and trips that these two young men had taken with bishop long over the years. they say that essentially he'd bought one of the men the house and another a car and lavished them with trips around the world. >> i think we'll be hearing more about this later on. this will definitely be one of the things on the agenda today. ed lavandera this morning, thanks so much. >> sure. also coming up next on the most news in the morning, there may be no such thing as a free lunch, but budweiser may be giving you free beer and trying to boost sales by getting young men interested in their product again. would you eat fish that was genetically modified? we're going to be talking about that with a food policy expert from rutger's university. ♪ every day you check the weather, check the time ♪

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20 minutes after the hour, all is right with the world. again, thankfully twitter back up and running today after a security flaw affected thousands of users yesterday. security experts say hackers put a mouse-over bug on the site. when you roll over things it automatically launches pop-ups and third party sites, including porn sites. twitter posted a statement on its website saying that users don't have to change their passwords, their account information wasn't compromised, it was just a real annoyance for folks using twitter. >> the scary part is you don't have to click anything, you just roll over it. well, obesity not only affects your health, but it affects your bottom line. researchers at george washington university say the annual cost of being obese is nearly $5,000 for women and more than 2,500 for men. they say that the costs are

linked to things like sick days and lost productivity. researchers also found larger women earn less than thinner women and there was actually little difference in wages for men. well, the two best words in the english language. free and beer. the king of beer, budweiser is trying to get its crown back. anheuser plans to give out 500,000 free bud samples by mid-october in effort to boost sales in the under 30 crowd. it even plans to partner with facebook so friends can get a free beer on their 22nd birthday. i guess if you were to give it for the 21st birthday, that would be seen as promoting drinking. give them a year and give them a free beer. you made it to 22 -- >> you've got to ease them in that whole year from 21 to 22 of figuring out what -- >> i don't know anyone who drinks before the legal drinking age, do you?

>> i don't actually know anyone under 21 anymore. it's sad. coming up on the most news in the morning, would you eat genetically altered salmon? it's 22 minutes past the hour. look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, expresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate box shipping starts at $4.95, only from the postal service.

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smooths damaged cuticles for 75% more shine in one use. real shine, for real life. yours. welcome back to the most news in the morning. 24 minutes past the hour right now. the food and drug administration is considering right now and they have been for the past few days whether to allow genetically engineered salmon to be sold in grocery stores. >> the industry says the genetically altered salmon which grows at a rate twice as fast as a regular salmon is safe.

but critics aren't convinced. and a lot of people don't trust the whole genetically modified thing. joining us now is william from rutgers university. we should mention you're a psychologist by training, so you get into the heads of consumers of what they want and don't want. but you also know the science behind this. the question many people may have, us included, how do they get a fish to grow so much faster than a normal fish? >> essentially what they do is they take a snippet of gene from an ocean polluck, which is a different kind of fish. they put that switch into the genetic material into the fish and they switch that into a fertilized egg of a north atlantic salmon. and what that does is allows the fish to grow both during the winter and summer. so it puts on weight twice as fast as a conventionally bred salmon. >> so the positive side is you

can grow it faster, potentially sell salmon for less money? >> yeah. basically it would be like a farmer who could plant two crops of corn in the same year, you could produce in 18 months rather than 36 months. >> is it safe? >> well, the fda says it is. what the scientists are saying is they can find really no differences between this genetically modified salmon and conventionally bred salmon. >> you have to wonder, though, if you're bathing it in growth hormone 12 months of the year as opposed to staging it in seasons and cycles, might you be introducing something into the food chain there that people could react to maybe a food allergy? >> well, that's a question that the fda has really looked at. and you know, you as a human being are bathed in growth hormone all the time, as well. it's just a question of really how much. this is a natural hormone. it's not anything that's unnatural. it just allows the fish to grow winter and summer. >> you know, there's some people that have reservations.

we asked, you know, just in the newsroom informally people said they would want to know. they would want it labeled and they're not sure if they would eat it. will this be labeled genetically modified fish? >> and that's an essential question that the fda is looking at. what the fda has said is because they have found really no differences between this fish and conventional fish, that there's really no reason to label it. and that really to label it as genetically modified would imply something that is different about the fish that doesn't really exist. >> shouldn't consumers have -- and don't they want the right to know? >> well, yeah, and that's the other side of the argument. what environmental groups and consumer groups are saying is that consumers should have sovereignty. they have the right to know. they should get a chance to choose which of the products they want to take home and feed to their families. but what the fda is saying, well, if you label this as genetically modified, people will interpret that as a warning

label. and that's almost kind of a false advertising, it implies something that isn't true. >> well, there are some critics who point to the unknowns about genetically modified food. one that caught our eye was the soy and corn. the soy-fed hamsters had by their third generation lost the ability to reproduce. in some cases they were growing hair in their mouth, which is something that obviously should not happen to hamsters. and it was a cause for concern that do we really know what we're getting into with what some critics have called frankenfood? >> and what most americans don't realize they have been eating genetically modified foods for more than a decade, we've all been eating genetically modified foods. 90% of all the soybeans grown in the united states are a genetically modified variety. between 80% and 90% of all the corn grown in the u.s. is

genetically engineered. and we use the products and ingredients from soybeans in almost every processed food product. we've all been eating it. >> this is the first genetically modified animal. another issue, what happens if these fish get out into the wild? thousands of farm-raised fish get out, but they're normal fish, they happen to be farm raised. they say they're sterile, incapable of breeding, but we all remember the line from jurassic park, life finds a way. how do we know they're not going to start reproducing? >> well, and the company has responded to that saying, you know, that is an important concern. so what they are planning to do is create as you suggest sterile fish. now, the problem is that perhaps as much as 5% of the eggs could be fertile. and so what they're saying is that they will have companies grow the fish in tanks on land so that there would be no possibility of it actually getting into the ocean. what they also argue is that this is ecologically much more

friendly than the kind of fish farming we currently do where fish are grown in pens in the ocean. and the issue there is really that wild fish, wild salmon and these farm salmon can interact and spread diseases from one to another. obviously if you're growing these fish in a tank on land, that's not possible. >> well, ultimately, it'll be up to the fda and then the consumer. if the consumer is informed, which i think many hope labeling will follow suit. but we'll have to wait and see. bill hallman, thanks for joining us this morning. >> my pleasure. >> thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> you can find out more about the debate in the food section of our website at cnn.com/eatacracy. would you eat genetically modified animals? at cnn.com/amfix. time to look at our top stories. corruption on steroids. that's how prosecutors describe

the staggering salary scandal happening in belle, california. it's a story we've been following very closely here on "american morning." the mayor along with seven current and former city officials will be arraigned today on criminal charges. accused of misusing more than $5 million in public funds. the former city manager was making about $800,000 a year. he alone faces 53 corruption counts. and crews trying to reach 33 trapped miners in chile are turning to plan c to speed up the rescue. the operation involves a special drill, which is normally used when drilling for oil. officials have previously said they could reach the miners in late october or early november. the men have been trapped since the 5th of august. well, there's a new book out by bob woodward. describing some deep divisions within the white house over the war in afghanistan. painting a portrait of a president desperate for an exit strategy.

and a testy relationship with top military advisers. at one point the president abruptly telling his military brass i'm done doing this while discussing troop levels declaring "i want an exit strategy. i can't lose the whole democratic party." it's not starting out as a good day for the white house. a new poll shows the approval rating is near an all-time low at just 46%. a majority of americans -- or close to a majority of americans now disapprove of the job he's doing. >> if you head to cnn.com this morning, ed henry examines how the president went from rock star status to rocky road in 20 months. ed's live at the white house this morning. a lot of people are asking whether or not he's lost his mojo. we've been in one of the toughest economic times of our generation. what is behind the numbers besides the obvious? >> well, kiran, it's interesting you put it that way. robert gibbs and other white house officials say, look, this whole frustration that we're seeing, especially over the economy is ten years in the

making. and not just to blame it on the previous administration. but say, look, when you see the poverty numbers that came out last week, worst poverty rate in decades and the fact there was sort of this lost decade of incomes for the middle class. that was something that was long in the making and robert gibbs points out, look, this is not going to change overnight. but the frustration you saw spilling out into cnbc town hall. you interviewed one of the questioners yesterday about all that. she said, look, i'm an obama supporter, but this is not turning around quick enough. i went down with my producer to southeast virginia. we picked virginia to sort of look at how the president is doing two years later because he won that state, first democrat to do that since 1964 back in 2008. and yet we found republicans and then democrats, independents, who voted for the president in 2008 saying this is not moving, turning around quickly enough. and one of the people we spoke to is reverend -- pastor

mariner. and he said a lot of his parishioners, including african-americans who were proud to support the president in 2008 are saying what happened? >> people don't seem excited about voting. they don't seem energetic. what difference would it make? we've got the first african-american president in office, but look at where we are now. >> what do you tell them when they seem disappointed? they had a lot of hope, but now they're disappointed. >> i don't know if they're disappointed at him, disappointed in the process. i think they're disappointed in overall this functional attitude in congress. >> and that's an important point to make. i heard that from other voters, as well. even some republicans say they voted for mccain in 2008. they said, look, president obama's a good man. but they feel he took on too much too fast in the first 20 months and maybe the process has sort of gotten beyond his control. they're not blaming this completely on him. but look, we just saw in the last 24 hours there's going to

be some more turnover here. larry summers, the president's top economic adviser announcing he's going to be leaving after the midterms, that follows peter orzag and christina romer. the only person left is going to be tim geithner. and this shows that the white house realizes while larry summers was planning to go back to harvard, that they're going to have to make changes comes out of these midterm elections because that frustration has not gone away and it's palpable among the supporters. >> one of the other things this morning is this new book from bob woodward which paints a lot of arguments about the war in afghanistan. it's called obama's war, the president looking for a way out of afghanistan. any reaction from the white house at this point? >> i've been e-mailing with top aides since 5:00 a.m. this morning, and so far, they're not offering any comment. i had one top aide saying, do you have a copy of the book? basically, are you seeing the

full context here? and we've got to admit we don't have the book yet. it's leaking out in the "washington post" and "new york times," but it's out there already and this white house cooperated in some extent with this book, the president interviewed top aides interviewed. they're not reacting yet, because they want the full context, not partial bits. but bob woodward as you know has a sterling reputation. and i think there's probably frustration inside the white house as when this is leaking out, how it's leaking out just as the president's about to go to the u.n. to talk about other foreign policy issues. now they've got to deal with questions about divisions here whether people like richard holbrook inside the administration don't believe the strategy's going to work. and especially as we were just talking about jobs and the economy, that's what they want to be talking about, not division over afghanistan, john. >> we'll see if we can't get somebody to a bookstore today and see if we can get an advanced copy, as well. >> that's right. a dad who stormed his

daughter's school bus in frustration after allegations she was being bullied. he says he's sorry, but he couldn't stand what was happening anymore. we're going to ask him why he was so upset and exactly what happened. and what the school district's planning to do now. it's 37 minutes past the hour. ♪ when it's planes in the sky ♪ ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ there will be no more stress ♪ ♪ cause you've called ups, that's logistics ♪

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39 minutes past the hour right now. welcome back to the most news in the morning. many of you have seen the video of a father storming on to a

school bus yelling at his daughter's classmates and confronting the bullies who tormented her the day before. here is a look if you didn't see it. >> now, everybody sit down. everybody sit down. show me which one. show me which one. i'm going to [ bleep ] you up and everybody on this [ bleep ]. this is my daughter and i will kill [ bleep ]. if anything happens to my daughter i'm going to [ bleep ] you up and everybody on this [ bleep ]. now the dad in that video is apologizing for that rant. james jones and his attorney join me with more on what happened and what might be ahead in the future. thank you for joining us this morning. first off, explain how your daughter is doing. as we understand it, she has special needs and she's actually been hospitalized for stress and may be coming home today. how is she doing? >> well, she's -- she's on the medications -- she suffered with cerebral palsy. we'd like to let everybody know that. cerebral palsy is out there and kids do suffer with that.

and right now we are just -- hopefully when she comes home we can get on with our lives with this. >> and tell us a little bit about what led up to your words on the bus, your screaming. >> well, basically my daughter was not -- wasn't catching the bus, my wife was just taken her to school. she was getting up late, dragging around the house. and then all of a sudden the day when we were headed out there, she finally opened up and told me what was going on. and from there, you know, being a dad just loving my daughter. and just loving all my kids, you know. that point, my heart was broke when i seen her standing there wasn't going to get on the bus crying. and a dad is a dad. and i was going to be her protector that day. >> what was going on on the bus, by the way? >> well, when the bus pulled up -- well, the bus was 20

minutes late before it even got there. we had time to stand there and just -- and, you know, my initial thing was just to go and maybe talk to the bus driver, actually to talk to the bus driver. but when i got there the bus finally pulled up, the bus was so crowded. it was like a circus coming right to you. and there was so many people all over the place. but it's not all kids' fault how they act and stuff. we all have to look at a lot of things how we parent our kids and everything like that also. >> yeah. it's important to remember this did not happen in a vacuum. this had been going on for a three-week period, the bullying of his daughter on that bus. it was a new school. it was the first time she'd taken that bus. and her bus stop was the last stop on that route. so by the time that his daughter got on the bus, the bus was full. so there were things like denying her a seat. there were things like hitting her, calling her names.

and this went on for a three-week period. school started august 16th, and the video happened on september 3rd. >> and natalie, you're his attorney, just so people understand. the seminole county school district is saying none of this was reported to them. is that true? >> the bullying incidents, the specific bullying incidents, no, they were not reported. mr. jones did not find out about the specific bullying incidents until that day. when his daughter finally broke down and told him. and that's common among kids that have been bullied. they feel that it doesn't matter if they tell authority figures. they feel lonely and helpless. what they did notice was that their daughter had become increasingly distraught. and also distant from them. so she would come home and close her door. they would try to talk to her. she was depressed. the mother -- mr. jones' wife took -- that week of the

accident, she started driving the daughter to school. because the daughter would purposely miss the bus. so she had to drive her to school. >> and moving forward. is your client -- is james going to face any charges in connection with this? >> right now he was arrested. he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of a school function. in florida, those are both second-degree misdemeanors. in florida the state attorney is the person who moves forward with charges. at this point, there has not been any formal charges. >> but i understand there is surveillance video appearing to show this incident where she had an unwrapped condom thrown at her head. are students being investigated in connection with this? and could they also be facing some trouble here? >> sure. students could be facing trouble if parents move forward to make

police reports against students. i don't think anyone has. i think right now -- and i know i've spoken to mr. jones and his family. and they want to talk about prevention, not arresting children. >> well, james, just the last word here. what do you hope comes out of all of this? >> well, i hope a lot of people start -- look at national bully prevention month coming up next month. we need to start getting into the more resources and helping the kids out. going and checking schools to make sure that the kids, you know, are educated on this thing. because this is not just in one school. it's all over. it's all over the world. it's not just right here. and my little town and stuff. >> and he'd like people to be aware of centers like the pacer center, which helps kids who are being bullied. you can go to their website at pacer.org. >> all right.

well that's -- >> kids and parents can get resources. >> that's some good advice, as well. and james, we wish you the best and hope your daughter is able to get over this whole situation and has a bright and happy school year. thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> obviously the wrong thing to do. but you can understand his frustrations as a parent, disabled child getting bullied, it's terrible. >> it's awful. coming up on the most news in the morning. it can turn on the lights, lock up after you, and make your morning coffee. taking a look at a smart house that could be coming to a neighborhood near you. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day.

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because of one word, america's air dominance for the next forty years is assured. that one word... is how. welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for a quick check of weather. igor hit parts of newfoundland, canada yesterday and scooting off to the northern atlantic. and this is from a tropical storm in the pacific. some of that will get into the desert southwest for flooding there. rain across south texas and severe weather threat across the northern tier as this front tries to cool things off. but ahead of it, it's going to

be toasty. 85 in new york, 91 in d.c., there were a slew of highs yesterday, and even though tonight fall arrives, the heat will continue. well, listen to this, a group of students from virginia tech, they won a competition in europe. it's called a solar decathlon. they were able to prove that they could build a solar-powered house and it be sort of comfortab comfortable. check it out in this week's "edge of discovery." >> reporter: welcome to the home of the future. when you wake up, the cold concrete floor warms up. your favorite music starts playing, and coffee begins to brew. and as you drive away, the house locks itself. >> the house is the solar house that gets all the energy from the sun. >> reporter: a group of virginia tech students designed it to be completely automated. it has panels that adjust on their own to the changing weather outside. >> the house operates on its own. it will maintain 100% energy efficiency. however, no one likes to be

completely controlled by computer. >> reporter: so you can override any computer using an iphone or ipad. inside, the house is about 600 square feet, but the small spaces are multi-functional. >> you have to convince people because it's so small that they could live in here. so the space-saving solutions are a big selling point for us. >> reporter: in the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. >> when these sliding doors are open and you open the area up to the decks, you tripped your square footage. >> reporter: even the water can be reused using outside recycling ponds. designers say homes like this could be on the market in just a few years. >> get your ipad out and you can control everything from the desk here. >> pretty cool. nice. 600 square feet are three times the size of a manhattan apartment. >> does it let the dog out too? >> probably. >> thanks, rob. all right. the white house calls first lady michelle obama the closer. and she's about to hit the campaign trail for a handful of democrats in tight reelection battles. so how will she deliver?

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♪ our points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel. we're like forget florida, we're going on a safari. so we're on the serengeti, and seth finds a really big bone. we're talking huge. they dig it up, put it in the natural history museum and we get to name it. sethasauraus. really. your points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel? means better vacations. that's incredible. believe it...with chase sapphire preferred your points are worth 25% more on travel when booked through ultimate rewards. it's five minutes now till the top of the hour. we're back with the most politics on this wednesday morning. >> let's check in with our senior political director mark preston with a check of what's crossing the political ticker this morning. hey, mark. >> good morning, kiran. good morning, john. let me rip through the headlines

crossing as we speak. michelle obama, she has a 62% approval rating beloved by democrats. she is hitting the campaign trail. she will be campaigning for at least nine democratic candidates in five states over a two-week period. she'll also be raising money for the dnc and the dccc and expect more dates to be added. michelle obama a much sought after get on the campaign trail. up in alaska, lisa murkowski staging a writing-in campaign. she's now on the air with a commercial. she is asking alaskans to give her a second chance that she has the experience and the know how to be returned to washington. a very difficult race up in alaska. and of course, heading to delaware to christine o'donnell. christine o'donnell seems to be the politician in the spotlight the last week. well, her insurgency candidacy has taken on an establishment feel. she has brought on an old

washington hand to help with her campaigns. specifically the allegations that she misused campaign funds. she also went on shawn hannety' show last night saying she will no longer be doing national interviews. the christine o'donnell insurgency campaign really seems to be taking on this establishment feel. kiran? >> we'll see how that strategy works. apparently, sarah palin said to her don't do it. don't set yourself up by giving a bunch of interviews that could turn into gotcha interviews. >> smart of her because at this point the only thing that can happen in her mind is she can be tripped up. we'll see what she does over the next couple of weeks. >> we'll see you back next hour. >> and for the latest political news go to cnn.com/politics. stay with us. dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that's healthy skin for life. only from aveeno.

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obama's wars, bob woodward's new book on the internal white house struggle with the strategy in afghanistan. >> i have determined it's in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 u.s. troops to afghanistan. >> the decision to put more troops in, the obsession with getting them all out on the most news in the morning. and good morning to you. we've got a lot going on this wednesday. it's september 22nd, i'm kiran chetry. >> good morning to you. i'm john roberts. thanks so much for joining us. we've got a lot more on bob woodward's new book coming up. the story you saw first on cnn. georgia pastor eddie long accused of coercing young men into sexual relationships. cnn's ed lavandera broke that story. his live report just ahead. christine o'donnell

campfiring back. the candidate for senate in delaware with the hopes of the tea party on her shoulders says she did not violate any election ethics and that her opponent and the national media are just out to get her. o'donnell also said she won't be giving any more national tv interviews with six weeks to go till election day. >> and bill clinton, not the man he used to be. some might say he's half the man he used to be. he's slimmed down considerably dropping some 25 pounds. he tells cnn's wolf blitzer how he did it and why. and our big story this morning. claims of an internal struggle inside of the white house over what to do in afghanistan. it's all laid out in a new book by bob woodward called "obama's wars," and excerpts have just been released. they paint a portrait of a president desperate for an exit strategy and clashing with

military advisers who were unable to give him one. >> yeah, the book is called "obama's wars." it describes intense divisions within the administration with advisers telling the president his strategy for ending the war will fail. the book also claims president obama set a withdrawal timetable for the conflict because he didn't want to lose the democratic party. and it says the cia has a 3,000-man covert army operating in afghanistan. it also talks of a testy exchange with advisers over troop levels with the president erupting at one point saying "i'm done doing this!" >> ed henry is at the white house this morning. and ed, you have just gotten a response back from the administration as to some of these claims in the book. what are they saying about it? >> you're right. this is the first reaction we're getting from the white house. a senior administration official telling me "the president comes across in the review of the afghan policy and throughout the decisionmaking process as a commander in chief who is

analytical, strategic, and decisive with a broad view of history, national security, and his role." that from a senior administration official. also notes to me that many of these divisions have been out there before. we knew that the war policy making wasn't pretty. and this official also pointing out if you look at the full context of the book that the president was really focused on the review about questions about al qaeda being defeated was really detailed and pressing for more information from the intelligence reports, pain staking in the detail, and pushing in the words of this official to get the right strategy. that's all well and good, but it doesn't get at the central questions you've just laid out, which is, are there senior people within the policymaking such as richard holbrook who allegedly says in the book that he doesn't think the strategy is going to work. what about all of the infighting, which is much more detailed than we've seen before? we knew about division, we didn't know about this detail. what about what you and john were just laying out about the president allegedly saying that

he had to craft this withdrawal strategy to begin to withdrawal troops in the summer of 2011 because of politics on the democratic party. pressure basically from liberals in his party. that's not answered by the senior administration official because that's not really what they want to talk about. right now they want to be talking about economy and jobs heading into the election. and today is the sixth anniversary of the president signing the health care reform into law. and he's going to be promoting that the provisions are taking effect. meanwhile, that's being blown out by this book. >> six-year anniversary or six-month? >> not six years. it feels like six years. >> i just want to ask you quickly as we talk about these so-called divisions that bob woodward is claiming in the wondering what was going on? >> well, sure, we remembered him as u.s. ambassador to the u.n. in the clinton administration. right now he's secretary of state's senior adviser on policy

dealing with the entire region. so he's a central player in all of this. and if he has second thoughts about whether the president's policy is going to work or not, after the fact, that's a problem. >> at the same time, we're getting new poll numbers coming in. let's put them up and have a look here. from back in february of 2009 until now his numbers have plummeted. he was in the mid-60s, now he's in the mid-40s currently at 46%, 49% just shy of a majority disapprove. you put together a special report for us at cnn.com, ed, asking the big question, has the president lost his mojo? what did you find out? has he lost his mojo? >> well, a question a lot of democrats are asking is they need the president in this last push, the last six weeks of the campaign. we went to virginia. we looked in part at this race where a freshman democratic congressman glenn nye is in deep

trouble. this is one of the race that is going to decide whether or not the democrats control the house. and he is someone who voted against health care reform, against the president's policies and basically running against him. take a listen to what he says. >> i've agreed with the president on a number of key issues, especially issues that have to do with taking care of our veterans and military families. i didn't vote for the health care bill. i thought it was too expensive. i didn't think that bill was the right formula. and i'll tell you, i'm frustrated too. i understand where a lot of folks are coming from when they say, you know, we see all these challenges, we see weakness in the economy and people struggling with unemployment. and at the same time, we see people in washington taking the partisan tact and attacking each other. i understand why people are tired of that. >> you see, he's trying to tap into that frustration and say, look, i'm not with the president, i'm essentially my own man. and i understand the frustration people have, and he wants to make this a race about himself and not the president. it's interesting because i

reminded the congressman that back in 2008 he campaigned with the president in that very district in virginia four times. he doesn't really want to campaign with him now. that's one sign of whether the president's lost his mojo when you've got dmemocrats in his ow party saying maybe they don't want to campaign with the president. they want to take his money out on the fund raising circuit, but they don't want to campaign with him because of those approval ratings you pointed out, john. >> they're trying to get reelected to their districts, you can understand they're going to do whatever they can do to show they're independent. ed henry, glad you got that comment from the senior officials at the white house. and we'll, of course, continue to follow that with you throughout the morning. >> good to to talk to you. >> you can also read ed henry's piece, go to cnn.com/politics. now to a story you saw first here on cnn, the spiritual leader of a prominent church in atlanta known for his public crusades against homosexuality is now facing sexual abuse

charges. two separate lawsuits allege that bishop eddie long used his position to coerce two men into sexual relationships with him when they were teenagers. ed lavandera broke this story. he's live in atlanta. and this is a very, very troubling lawsuit against the bishop, ed. >> oh, there's no question that the allegations in this lawsuit are sending shock waves through the new birth baptist missionary church. it is a huge mega church. and bishop eddie long is a very influential man. >> angels were flying around my bed! all night, all day! >> reporter: bishop eddie long's fiery sermons have made him a revered evangelical pastor. he's the minister of the mega church near atlanta, georgia. >> eddie long offers himself up as this kind of man's man. he's the quintessential man, he's a successful businessman. he's a successful preacher.

he has a beautiful family. he's a successful family man, he drives a fancy car, he wears custom tailored clothes. so in some ways some would argue that he is the man that all women want and that all men are supposed to aspire to be. >> reporter: but in separate lawsuits, two young men, former church members say bishop long used his spiritual authority to coerce and manipulate them into destructive sexual relationships. 20-year-old maurice robinson and 21-year-old anthony flagg say they met eddie long through the bishop long fellow youth academy. >> he would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader. and your master. and let him know that the acts that he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning that he was a homosexual. >> reporter: bishop long's spokesman tells cnn he adamantly denies the allegations.

>> within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony where there was candles, exchange of jewelry. and biblical quotes given in order for anthony to know, and for the bishop to tell him, i will always have your back and you will always have mine. >> in the name of jesus. >> reporter: bishop eddie long built a spiritual empire by sheer force of personality. new birth church had 300 members some 20 years ago. today it has more than 25,000 members. when coretta scott king, the wife of the reverend martin luther king died, her funeral was held in his church. as his prestige has grown, so has his conservative voice in social politics. he once led an anti-gay marriage march in atlanta. >> we're not marching against

folks, we are marching folks. and if they don't understand it now, they'll understand it by and by. >> reporter: those who followed his career say bishop long has never shied away from talking about his own personal struggles and faults. that's made him even bigger than life to his spiritual flock. >> john, as soon as this lawsuit was filed, bishop eddie long -- saying we categorically deny these allegations. it is very unfortunate that someone has taken this course of action. our law firm will be able to respond once attorneys have had an opportunity to review the lawsuit. so we anticipate perhaps some more from them from eddie long's folks later on today. so we'll see how that plays out. john? >> and, in fact, we should point out that about an hour from now, 8:10 eastern we're going to talk with art franklin, the spokesman wow quoted there. and later on this morning, kyra phillips will be talking to bernstein about this.

thanks so much. >> you got it. 11 minutes past the hour right now. time to get a look at the weather headlines. we have rob marciano with us here in new york on our last day of summer. it is officially 11:09 fall begins tonight. >> you're correct about that. >> that was up in your living room? >> it was. i had to make a quick call home. actually i tapped in with my iphone. good morning, guys. not only is it the start of fall, we've had a number of storms to talk about. that karl thing that went into mexico as a major storm has brought a tremendous amount of moisture to texas, southern texas especially. check out some of this flooding video. torrential rains here the past several days. and obviously the roads are flooding and people had to scurry out of their homes in some cases. and there's more rainfall on the way here. so we're talking about -- you get moisture that's this deep this time of year obviously from the tropics. it can come down in a hurry and it's been coming down for days at a time. they've had well over 1/2 foot of rain from corpus christi to

brownsville. flash flood warnings are still in effect and we still have rainfall rotating into this area today. that's why they're anticipating the potential for more flooding. although the radar right now not looking that dense. we slide the map over to arizona. don't typically start in arizona this time of the morning because a lot of folks are asleep. that moisture from the pacific now in this area. problems from phoenix northeast into flagstaff, as well. the front across the western great lakestrying to bring cooler air in. record highs up over 90 easily, in some cases 100 degrees. and today that heat will be cooking across much of the central united states. and as kiran mentioned, at 11:09 tonight, fall arrives, break out the pumpkins and get your leaf blowing aids in order. >> that's right. >> it's that time of year. >> where is that? that's beautiful. >> yeah, the colors, they are achanging. i'm going to guess that's somewhere up north.

>> our producer brian goes generic roll. >> roll that beautiful foliage footage. >> i guess it's a little early for it to be that pretty. >> that's like the photos that come in the electronic frame -- >> but they never get old, john. >> they don't. it's just a quick look at what we can anticipate happening in the weeks to come. >> exactly. >> and which leads us into our next story, what are you doing for thanksgiving? if you've made your plans yet, you're in for -- if you haven't made your plans yet, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. unfortunately it'll cost you a lot more this year if you're planning on flying. >> they do it to us every year. also, christine o'donnell firing back after ducking our question. the tea party sensation responds to accusations that she stole from her own campaign. you can imagine what she's saying about it this morning. we'll bring it to you. 15 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] the financial headlines

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♪ sure is a pretty shot this morning, sunrise. >> very nice. going to be a nice day in new york today. >> should be gorgeous. should be gorgeous. well, it's 18 minutes past the hour. following a tense standoff with police in fairview heights, illinois. there's a man inside his home since last night threatening to blow himself up. they say he may actually have the means to do it, as well, and that he has his wife inside the home with him. police say the suspect has experience with bombs and that they're taking the threat seriously. they've set up a perimeter. they've called in a bomb squad. they actually say that there's a bomb unit from scott air force base being brought in, as well. this standoff began when police wanted to question them. they went to his home to question him. there is now a third escape tunnel being drilled that could potentially speed up the rescue

of those 33 miners trapped in chile. miners are digging it with a drill from an oil company. he hopes the miners will now be out by early november, which is maybe as much as a couple of months before it was thought they were going to be out. >> wow. to politics now. a midterm race in the national spotlight. christine o'donnell from delaware is speaking out. she sidestepped our gary tuchman's questions about bills she paid with campaign cash. but she did sit down last night with shawn hannity of fox news. and although she could head to washington, she says she's given her last national tv interview. she also tried to clear the air about the days she said she dabbled in witchcraft. >> bill maher, a friend of yours obviously. you did his show a lot, apparently. >> yeah, unfortunately.

>> he comes up with this tape, what was it 1999, you made an appearance? >> yes. >> talking about a boy when you were a teenager? >> right, right. >> saying you had dabbled into witchcraft. why don't you explain to people that may be -- what was that about? >> well, teenage rebellion. you know, some people dabble in drugs to rebel, that's how i rebelled. >> all the talk about you've got to do this national show, that national show. is that off the table for you? >> it's off the table because that's not going to help me get votes. i instead want to go to as many town hall forums, as many candidate forums, as many church picnics i can fit into my schedule so that i can meet the voters. >> gary tuchman has been following the o'donnell campaign since her surprise victory and has her lawyer's response to a watchdog group that called o'donnell a criminal. >> reporter: we've been reporting this week that a watchdog group in washington, the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington known

as c.r.e.w. has filed a complaint against christine o'donnell saying she spent campaign money for personal expenditures. today the campaign is fighting back. we asked o'donnell about it two days ago while she was at a candidate's forum. she gave a general statement saying why would you believe a liberal group? we asked her specifically about these charges. charges for rents, charges for gas, restaurants. she didn't answer the question. but today her lawyer did speak out. a lawyer in washington, d.c. who is representing o'donnell says these allegations are not true whatsoever. one of the charges was she wasn't running in 2009. she started running again in march of 2010. but according to cleo mitchell, she intended to run even though she didn't officially declare. and therefore she was allowed to spend money. about the personal charges, gas stations, restaurants, stores. why would you need that for a campaign? but she's saying perhaps there are some reporting errors. every client she's had has had

problems with the complicated forms. >> gary tuchman this morning, thanks. we also heard from christine o'donnell's democratic challenger chris coons. he says witchcraft isn't really relevant in this campaign. he's also been forced to answer questions about his past. he had to come out and deny allegations from conservative bloggers and radio hosts that he is a bearded marxist based on an article he wrote in a student paper back in 1985. well, if you're bewitched or bewildered about the race going on in delaware, we're going to get it all straight because the two candidates have accepted an invitation to participate in a debate on october the 13th. it's going to be hosted, moderated by wolf blitzer. you can see it right here on cnn live from the university of delaware. that is the 13th of october. doesn't happen to be a friday, does it? >> let me look. it might. hold on a second. i doubt it. it's a wednesday. >> it's a wednesday.

>> but -- >> fun to think about. >> but it is interesting, though. as we heard her say, she's not giving any more national interviews. this might be one of the only chances for some people to get their questions out there about what type of senator she would be. >> did you ever see wolf blitzer wiggle his nose like samantha stevens? >> i can't really picture that, actually. i don't know if i want to. 23 minutes past the hour. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is going to be in new york addressing the united nations. and protesters are out in force demonstrating against iran's leader. he's also stopping by "larry king live," as well. so we're going to have more on that. it's 23 minutes past the hour.

coming up now 25 minutes after the hour. we're minding your business. if you've been holding on to that gold waiting to sell it to get some cash, now might be the time to dump it. it topped $1,293 an ounce in early trading this morning. demand is soaring after the federal reserve indicated a willingness to further stimulate the u.s. economy. one of america's great landmarks is rusting, the gateway arch in st. louis is made of stainless steel. engineers promised in the 1960s it would last for centuries, but now it's corroding. an engineer has been hired to determine what's going on. >> maybe it's not as stainless as the stainless steel it was purported to be. americans love their macs, not hamburgers, computers.

a survey found that apple macintoshes have the highest rating of any personal computer. dell, hewlett-packard, and acer all tied for second. it's like there's mac and everybody else. >> right. if you haven't booked that thanksgiving flight just yet, you should prepare yourself that it's going to cost you more. airlines are -- as they do every year, hiking fares, but this year by 10% over last year. the average cost of a domestic round trip flight over thanksgiving will be $384. that seems like a bargain, doesn't it? >> well, depends on where you're going, i guess. if you're going from new york to philadelphia, no, it wouldn't be. you could walk for a lot less than that. well, if you fly on the tuesday before the holiday and return on the sunday after, your fare could actually be $170 higher than normal. time toe get in your car. >> you want to go somewhere? an economic aftershock.

the recession is over. so what happens next? former labor secretary robert reich joins us live coming up to talk about his new book and plans that, well, some people might find a little controversial. it's 27 minutes after the hour. ♪ when it's planes in the sky ♪ ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. we're crossing the half hour now. and world leaders are gathering in new york to address the united nations. and there's a lot of attention being focused on iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad. there were throngs of

demonstrators lining the streets outside of the u.n. to protest the iranian leader. addressing a u.n. session on global poverty yesterday, ahmadinejad said that capitalism is dying. and that it's time for a new economic system. well, president obama turns his attention to the world's stage today. arriving in new york ahead of his big speech to the u.n. general assembly tomorrow. two years ago while campaigning, here's what the now president said about dealing with iran. >> i will use all elements of american power to pressure the iranian regime, starting with aggressive, principled, and direct diplomacy. backed with strong sanctions and without preconditions. >> that was back in 2008. so how will president obama handle the iran situation two years later? cnn foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty is joining us now. and it doesn't seem like we're going to hear the same tough rhetoric we heard last year at the united nations general assembly. >> i was thinking about that. if you look at that quote from

him from two years ago, it was reach out, stretch out the hand. maybe they'll grab it back, maybe we can do something, maybe we can stop their nuclear program. then you had a period where they got into some really hard rhetoric. and a lot of it came from hillary clinton. >> he took a lot of heat for that. that was a debate when they were candidates. and she said -- didn't she say it was naive to talk about no preconditions? >> exactly. very good point. so here we are -- and now we're getting back to the same thing. the president -- president obama is now talking about there's a chance that we can still, you know, engage. and hillary clinton's rhetoric, if you look at that, it's a military dictatorship, responsible parties in iran should begin to take control. it's almost like good cop/bad cop. and it's also back and forth. so there's a lot of ambiguity. >> it's very interesting to see that noted. and meanwhile, the protests -- and i was getting e-mails and i'm sure you were too saying ahmadinejad does not speak for

the people of iran and we're protesting that he's even getting a forum, allowed to speak. these are expatriots of iran that are incensed he's getting this stage at the u.n. >> the overriding thing, of course, is the nuclear issue. and what's going to happen. will they actually come clean on their nuclear program? but there's a lot of political upheaval in iran right now. and i think behind the scenes when you talk to other u.s. diplomats and others who know it, no one's sure, what lever can you pull? what's really going to hurt? will these sanctions hurt that small group of military leaders? >> particularly they hurt the population at large as opposed to the targeted leaders. but ahmadinejad himself would like better relations with the west. but until he dials back on the nuclear program, not much is likely to happen. >> and look at what they've accomplished. not much. iran continues to process this

nuclear -- to process uranium. that deal to ship out uranium and reprocess it some other place did not go through. and we're almost in the same rut that we've been. it's not effective. >> we'll see what he talks about when he has the big forum. that's tomorrow, right? >> right, right. that's the big speech. and it will be very interesting. because yesterday he was pretty temporate and now thursday we'll get a speech. >> he speaks to the entire u.n. general assembly. you'll be watching for sure. >> and listening. >> we'll check in with you. thanks, jill. >> thanks. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is also going to be speaking to larry king that's tonight at 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. time now for the latest news from the best political team on television. crossing our political ticker this morning. illinois congressman jesse jackson jr. announcing that he is deeply sorry after admitting a relationship with a female

"social acquaintanacquaintance." oh, boy, mark. >> oh, boy, john. you said it. well, i'll tell you -- this is a story, of course, that the "chicago sun times" broke yesterday. and jesse jackson jr. having to address a private matter. told investigators that jackson had him paid to have this restaurant hostess here from washington, d.c., to fly back and forth between chicago and here in the nation's capital. it forced jackson to release a statement saying, of course, that he was deeply sorry and he disappointed some supporters and basically he's working this out with his family and has worked it out with his family. what is beyond personally troubling, john, is the fact he potentially could've violated the house gift ban. he could've violated congressional rules. the same businessman said that jackson asked him to raise $6 million for rod blagojevich who

was the former governor of illinois as jackson was trying to get that seat. that was left vacant when president obama left to become president. now jackson has denied those allegations. but moving on, president clinton is talking tea party. in fact, what he's saying, john, is that the democratic party should not be engaging the tea party. in fact, the democratic party should be focusing instead on solutions and telling voters how they can make things better. this is how he described the tea party founders. they tend to be pretty far right extremists whose goal is to destroy the power of government to mediate the power of corporations. and he told our own wolf blitzer that yesterday on cnn. and sarah palin herself is talking tea party. all seems to be a big tea party. she put out a video yesterday highlighting the movement. it was an 80-second video called simply "the tea party." i've got to tell you, to me it really seemed like a presidential video in many ways because it used footage of palin

addressing a tea party rally earlier this year. a lot of big crowd shots, john, kiran. >> no question about it, when it comes to enthusiasm, the tea party seems to have the edge this year. >> no question. >> great to see you this morning. we'll check back in with mark next hour. and for all the latest political news go to cnnpolitics.com. also new this morning, hip hop singer wyclef jean ending his bid to become president of haiti. he'd promised to fight haiti's ruling making him ineligible to run because he's not a resident. now he says there are other battles more worth fighting. you heard about alligators in the sewers, right? check out what a bronx, new york, man found curled up on his toilet seat. a 3-foot long corn snake also known as a red rat snake. they're pretty creepy, but they're harmless. >> i'm getting goose bumps. >> police were called in. they easily corralled the thing. they think that, yes, it came up

through the plumbing. >> so that urban myth that they've said all these years is not true, is, in fact true, reptiles crawl through the sewers, right up through your toilet. >> some people worry about flushing your dental floss down the toilet. i'd say that's not too much of a worry comparatively speaking. >> you flush down the dental floss and out comes a snake. >> you know the dental floss is never going to come back up and sit on your toilet seat. >> goosebumps, don't need that this early. former president bill clinton has dropped 24 pounds, and he's spilling his secrets to cnn on how he turned it around and got very healthy. it's 36 minutes after the hour.

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with pressure building on the president to figure out how to jump start the economy, he's losing another member of his economic team. >> this is larry summers, the director of the national economic council. and he says he's going to return to harvard at the end of the year. he said he had to do that to not lose his tenure. it is the third big loss, though for the president in recent months. robert reich knows the pressures of working in the white house. he was the secretary of labor under bill clinton and has a new book out on the current financial crisis and what lies ahead. it's called "aftershock" the next economy in america's future. thanks for joining us, robert. >> thank you. >> first your thoughts on larry

summers. this wasn't that unexpected. what is the impact of this being the third big economic adviser of the president to leave? >> well, clearly it gives the president the opportunity to press the reset button on economic policy. you had three of the four big advisers on the economy who have left or are leaving. and it's sort of the next chapter. >> let's get to the book then. "aftershock." after reading through it, you have some, i guess what you could refer to as dramatic controversial prescriptions for fixing the economy. >> i don't think they're controversial, john. they may be dramatic. >> you don't think they are controversial, but a lot of people would. let's start with the economic comeback. the economic recovery. you paint a fairly grim picture of that. here's what you say in the book. you say "the so-called recovery will be anemic. a large percentage of americans will remain jobless, or their wages will drop. american consumers will not be able to spend enough to keep the recovery going." you point to an imbalance in the fundamentals of the economy. >> well, the fundamental

imbalance is really for the last 30 years most of the gains of the economy, gains of growth have gone to the top, particularly the top 1%. now, i'm not a class warrior, but i am a class worrior. because if they all go to the top, the middle class doesn't have enough purchasing power to buy the goods and services that the economy is capable of producing. without going deeper and deeper into debt. and finally, that debt bubble bursts as it did, and now we are back to where we were before. unless something is done about the fact that the middle class is basically stranded, we're not going to ever be able to get out of this. >> you think the solution is to increase the marginal tax rate for the above earners to be taxed at 55% to 61% and that area to be taxed at 60%. people would say this is classic socialism, income redistribution. >> no, no -- >> this is spreading the wealth

around. >> no, kiran. first of all, the major point in the book is to ensure that the middle class through taxes, through education, through infrastructure really has the wherewithal to prosper. and they do not right now. there's no redistribution per se. let me talk about -- >> well, you do talk about putting -- having college education be free. having anybody be able to go into medicare and some of that money that you would perhaps work ten years out of your -- >> yes. >> you put that money into paying people who could not afford college. so it is making its way through there? >> well, yes and no. but my point in the book is that even for the very rich, it's better to have a smaller share of an economy that is growing quickly than a huge share of an economy that's dead in the water. so it's not exactly redistribution. i'm saying to the very rich, look, you have a stake economically and politically in an economy that is doing much better for everybody. >> what are the -- one of the points you make is you need to

tax the rich in order to get the revenue from them. because they're not going to spend the money themselves. that they live well within their means. they way way too modestly. you can't make up in their spending in the revenues gained from their spending as you could if the government were to tax them. here's what you say. "the sheer magnitude of the task of spending obscene amounts of money can be surprisingly challenging. what about the argument, robert, that jeff saks made on this program yesterday. that you can't raise the revenues necessary just on the backs of the rich? that you have to cut spending programs, as well. and also, there's this idea too that the rich can afford not to take as much income. they can defer income, therefore defer taxes and the money that you get from them will be even less than maybe you're getting now? >> well, the rich can defer taxes, and that's part of the problem. last year, the 25 top hedge fund managers in this country earned on average $1 billion each. and a lot of them paid about 17% in taxes. i mean, they're paying at a tax

rate because of deferrals and because of capital gains loopholes, they're paying a tax rate that somebody earning $30,000 a year pays. it is absurd. >> so they know how to game the system. >> they know how to game the system, kiran. but it also goes to the current debate over whether you extend the bush tax cuts to the top or not. the 98%, i would say, yes, extend them to 98% of americans. but people at the top do not spend nearly the same percentage of their income as average working people. and therefore, if you give them a big tax break, they're not going to turn around and spend it, they're not going to create jobs. and also, by giving them a big tax break and extending the bush tax cut for them for another year or two, you are giving them a huge windfall. one year for the top 2% means $36 billion. and that blows a hole in the budget. >> well, i want to give your reaction to what ben stein wrote. he's an economist. and he -- put an article out

there saying "why am i being punished?" and he wrote, i'm not quite sure what my sin is. i worked for almost every dollar i have except for a small percentage my parents left me by working hard. most of that taken by the federal estate tax. i have a lot less than i did before the stock market crash, i pay my income taxes, after them and the commissions i pay my agent, i'm left with about 35 cents for every dollar i earn. doesn't that just go against the grain of what america is? >> well, kiran -- for one thing -- nobody right now is talking about doing anything other than go back to the clinton tax rates. i mean, that's what the big debate about. do you extend the bush tax cuts for the top 2%? or do you go back to the 1990s? and then the 1990s we had a pretty good economy, as i recall. i was labor secretary through most of that. you had 22 million net new jobs

created, and you didn't have anybody complaining very much about the tax rates. let me remind you also that under dwight eisenhower, republican president who nobody accused of being a socialist or a radical, the top marginal tax rate in this country was 91%. now, i'm not saying go back there, but look -- people who are very wealthy in this country have never been as wealthy as they are now. the gap between the top 1% and everybody else has not been as great since 1920s. and we're all part of the same society. people don't become wealthy because they are working in madagascar or bangladesh, they become wealthy in the united states because they have benefitted by being part of the system. >> some dramatic, some might say controversial ideas. i think the idea of a 55% marginal tax rate is controversial. >> well, it may be controversial, but in terms of what it allows, in terms of subsidizing middle class, cutting taxes on the middle class, providing better

education, better job training, better infrastructure, allowing us to reduce the long-term debt, this is not and should not be controversial. believe me. >> the book is called aftershock. great to see you this morning. >> good to talk to you. the white house reacting now to obama's wars. a new book by bob woodward claims the president has been battling with top military advisers who refuse to provide him with an exit strategy to the war in afghanistan. what is the white house saying about those claims? we'll that at the top of the hour.

all right. check out the video of newfoundland, canada, as igor made the pass there. winds gusting over hurricane strength. flooding with five to ten inches and didn't make a direct hit. so big impact. 19 communities cut off with the storm surge flooding. trying to get rid of igor and not too much with tropical storm lisa. this storm i think a nonevent over the next couple of days but the caribbean. we talked about this yesterday. disturbance rolling through the

southeastern caribbean, that's got a pretty good bet of a tropical storm if not a hurricane over the next few days and going towards the western gulf and potentially into the gulf of mexico next week. so all eyes on there tropically and tropical moisture from the four corners. flood potential there pretty high. severe thunderstorms possible across the upper midwest as a cool front tries to make it south tonight on the first day of fall and hard time doing that. record highs many spots and today similar numbers. 93 degrees expected in atlanta. 85 in new york. as fall arrives at 11:00 tonight, it feels like summer. that's a quick check on weather. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time...

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we are back with the most news in the morning. have you seen president bill clinton lately? more like the beatles said he is not half the man he used to be. he's lost serious weight. >> you remember back in the days when he was president people teased him about the fact he liked to eat at mcdonald's. well, that was then and this is now. clinton losing 24 pounds. former president says he's reversing his heart disease so how did he do it? he revealed the secrets in an interview with our own wolf blitz blitzer. >> how did you lose so much weight? what kind of diet are you on? >> well, the short answer is i went on essentially a plant-based diet. i live on legumes, vegetables, fruit. i drink a protein supplement every morning. no dairy. almond milk mixed with fruit and protein powder to get the protein for the day when i start the day out and changed my whole

me ltabolism and lost 24 pounds and got back to what i basically weighed in high school. i wanted the lose a little weight but i didn't dream this would happen. i did it because after i had this stent put in, i realized that even though it happens quite often that after you have bypasses you lose the veins because they're thinner and weaker than arteries, the truth is that it clogged up. which means that the cholesterol was still causing build-up in my vein that was part of my bypass and thank god i could take the stents. i don't want it to happen again. so i did all this research and saw 82% of the people since 1986 who have gone on a plant-based, no dairy, no meat of any kind, no chicken, turturkey, once in while a little fish, not often, if you can do it, 82% of the

people who have done that have begun to heal themselves. their blockage cleans up. the calcium deposit around the heart breaks up. this movement is led by a doctor at the cleveland clinic. dean hornish that you know in california. the doctors of the china study and a handful of others but we have 25 years of evidence and so i thought, well, since i needed to lose a little weight for chelsea's wedding, i'll become part of the experiment. i'll see if i can be one of those that can have a self-clearing mechanism. we'll see. >> i hope you're healthy for many years and get to see grandchildren for many years to come. >> me, too. that's really the big deal. you know, hillary and i, we're happy. we love our son-in-law and admire him but -- and we'd like to be around if there's grand kids. we want to be there to do our part. >> mr. president, good luck. >> thank you.

>> wow. >> bill clinton, how did you lose weight? five-minute dissertation. >> can't stop listening. that's the amazing part of him. but it really is radical to think you can reverse heart disease by doing on a completely plant-based diet. this is something sanjay talked about and doesn't keep meat in the home. i just -- if you can do it. >> there's so many different diets out there. the new one, the paleo diet. just meat and veg taetables and good for him for losing some weight. >> great. >> more stories about your health, go to cnn.com/health. and we are going to have your top stories in just two minutes. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless, too? new aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers, with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals give you sheer coverage instantly,

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aveeno hair shines in real life. new aveeno nourish plus shine with active naturals wheat smooths damaged cuticles for 75% more shine in one use. real shine, for real life. yours. good morning to you. it is 8:00 eastern on this wednesday, september 22nd. thanks so much for being with us. >> thanks so much for joining us. a lot to talk about this morning. here's what happened overnight.

the white house reacting this morning to a new book by bob woodward. "obama's wars" and paints a picture of a president at war with his own advisers over how to end the conflict in afghanistan. late-breaking developments coming your way in a moment. world leaders now converging on the united nations to have their say before the general assembly. president obama will join them today. ahead of his big speech to the entire world body tomorrow. the o'donnell campfiring back. the candidate for senate in delaware with the hopes of the tea party on her shoulders says she did not violate election ethics and she is done with the national media for now. >> because of the frenzy that these things have become, it's interfering so i've been talking to some people that have invited us to events and asking them to not allow media to attend or at least to keep them in the back so that i can meet the voters without them getting pushed. >> her biggest supporter sarah palin is also out with a new

video playing up the tea party and she sure looks like a candidate in it. the best political team on television here to break it all done six weeks from election day. the a.m. fix blog is up and running. go to.com/amfix. top story this morning, war inside the white house over the war in afghanistan, all spelled out in a new book titled "obama's wars." >> excerpts describe deep divisions within the administration on how to deal with afghanistan. close aide richard holbrooke reportedly telling the president that his plans for ending the afghan war, quote, can't work. ed henry live at the white house this morning. so we understand the administration is responding. they wrote back the you in an e-mail about the excerpts from the book. what are they saying this morning? >> reporter: that's right, kiran. early this morning, the white house responding to this. the book supposed to be published next week. a senior administration official tells me, quote, the president

comes across in the review an throughout the decision-making process as a commander in chief who's decisive with a broad view of history, national security and his role. that quote from a senior official and notes that, look, the debates in the book reported on before. that is true. but perhaps not in the level of detail that we're now seeing in this book. number one. number two, the senior official points out to me that, you know, the president is shown really pressing for answers about, you know, what's the best strategy to get al qaeda, keep them in check. pressing for more information. personally getting involved, reading the intelligence reports. making sure that he went through every scenario to get this policy right. that's all well and good. that, however, the suggestion that, look, there's nothing new here. let's move along. which is what the white house response sounds like does not necessarily match what you laid out with richard holbrooke an

official on policy saying he is not sure, allegedly saying and quoting in the book not sure that the policy will work. that is a problem for the administration. something they don't want to be dealing with right now and talking about the economy and health care because today's the six-month anniversary of the health care reform being signed into law. last thing to talk about is division over the war policy. kiran, john? >> so the timing was unfortunate for the white house but the book wasn't a surprise. they knew about it. >> reporter: you're right. i mean, bottom line is president obama did at least one interview. all kind of senior officials were involved. can't be completely surprised and in ware tons the white house some of this division as i noted has been out there before and let's face it. war making policy is messy. you know that from the bush administration having covered that closely, as well. it's not easy. there's going to be division and one thing this administration said coming in is that weren't going to rubber stamp what the pentagon wanted that they were going to go through it and looks like from the excerpts it does

show a commander in chief doing that. however, the level of division and now after the decision is made having people like richard holbrooke allegedly questioning whether this policy is even going to work that is a problem when the president today going to new york for the u.n. assembly and stopping iran of getting nuclear weapons, israeli/palestinian peace and last thing to talk about is division within their own ranks on afghanistan. john, kiran? >> yeah. well, it will be interesting to see what he talks about today and how all of this is received this morning. so ed henry, thanks for getting that response and on for us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. president obama is turning attention to the world stage today. he is arriving in new york ahead of the big speech and speaking to the united nations general assembly tomorrow. world leaders are getting to know each other face to face meetings at the united nations. cnn's jill dougherty is following it for us and joins us now. who's meeting on the sidelines

here? >> they'll all be meeting. president obama arrives about 4:00 this afternoon and then he has a speech first of two speeches. he'll be talking about millennium goals and that's a big side of this. and then we have the big speech tomorrow. and you have to say, every time that we're here for unga, there's attention on president ahmadinejad and you were talking about the policy. you know, the e evaluation of how effective the policy has been and are we going to get a replay of what we got last year, you know, tough or is it going to be more moderate, where are we? it's a confusing time with iran policy because nobody including the administration seems to know what you can do to get the goal that they want and that's to stop the nuclear program and over on the other side you have the ticking clock of israel saying, look, we'll take matters

into our own hands if this doesn't stop because eventually in a year or so they're going to get a bomb. they would say. and so, we have to do something about it. so obama's in a difficult situation. >> also interesting with so much strife going on domestically because of the economy. people in elkhart, indiana, suffering and cities all over the country saying why do i care about what's going on in the world when we're suffering so much? what type of message might the president have to craft to show he's keeping the domestic concerns top of mind? >> the strategy that they have really is he's talking about development and it may seem a little strange to say, you know, we need to help other countries when this country is having difficulties but he makes a point and hillary clinton makes a point that if these -- if countries fall apart and we are just in afghanistan, if countries fall apart, if people are living poorly, and they have nothing to keep them from going

to terrorists or be under this wave of terrorists, you can have massive problems and we'll talk about development and that's a theme that we don't get into too much but hugely important here at the u.n. but the overriding thing again, mideast, iran and very serious issues with time frames that are very tight. >> watching to see how it all goes and good to have you watching it for us on cnn. jill, thank you so much. >> iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad will be larry king's guest here on cnn. later on in this hour, we'll track richard roth's wild ride on the general assembly party circuit. >> were you there, too? >> an oxymoron. >> right. >> so stay tuned for that this morning. well, he did speed dating well. see if he does united nations party circuit. a ton of parties. rob marciano here with the weather headlines and good young

man and went to bed early. >> is there a red carpet at the u.n.? >> i guess we'll find out. >> yeah. looking forward to that. hey, listen, guys, i want to start off with the caribbean. watching this thing percolate and now turned into something more worriful. 60% of this becoming a tropical depression, tropical storm in 48 hours. it's got all this warm water to traverse and not a lot in front of it with atmospheric conditions and gets to central america and potentially the gulf of mexico next week. what else is going on the tropically? rain across from texas from karl and new mexico, arizona from tropical storm georgette and we didn't much about. it was on the eastern pacific and that will be trained into the front trying to pass to the south and cool everybody off but it's going to pretty much hover around the northern tier. look at 100 degrees in alabama.

columb columbia, south carolina, 98 degrees. tonight, at 11:00 p.m., fall arrives and over the next couple of days, still feels like july and august. so mother nature not really cooperating just yet but it will be cold soon enough. >> that's all right. this is non-cooperation. i don't mind. >> we'll be glad for this in january. >> feels good. scorching summer. easing into winter and, you know, slowly but surely. >> see what goes on. meanwhile, you know who's going to have plenty of time on his hands this fall? david hasselhoff. poor guy. >> i was concerned about that. hoping to stay busy. >> well, you know what? where was the german vote people ask. the hoff already history. he was a first celebrity voted off of the new season. >> the judges gave his cha cha a real beating. one calling it a potpourri of insanity. last week, the situation, and

margaret cho. >> how do you cha cha effectively in a skin tight pleter jacket? >> she was great. >> the clothing -- >> little looser and freer. >> well, the fda one step closer to approving genetically modified salmon, salmon that's injected with a gene that allows it to produce a growth hormone and grows twice as fast as conventional fish. would you eat it? will they need to put it on the label? we'll break down the debate coming up. a sex scandal rocking a most powerful church in the south. the pastor accused of coercing them into sexual acts. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers.

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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. 13 minutes after the hour. the spiritual leader of a prominent atlanta church is facing sexual abuse charges. two separate lawsuits allege that the bishop long used the position to coerce two men into sexual relationships when they were teenagers. >> the church's denying the allegations. art franklin is a spokesperson for bishop long and joins us now on the phone from atlanta. thank you for joining us this morning, art. >> good morning, kiran and john. how are you guys? >> great, thank you. disturbing allegations for sure from two men who tell our ed lavandera they have texts and e-mail that is will corroborate

their story. what is bishop long's side? >> i want to be clear from our perspective. there's been a lot of chatter since yesterday. but these complaints that have been filed against bishop long are definitely without merit and as we swiftly stated yesterday upon learning of the accusations, and as you said, bishop long categorically and adamantly denies the allegations and there's really unfortunate that the men gone down the road, taken this course of action against someone who helped them like numerous individuals and families in tough situations. >> art, these two men in question anthony flag and maurice robinson, looking at the complaints, very similar in the stories and allegation that is bishop long became spiritual and personal advisers. that they were involved in this covenant ceremony. that they traveled extensively across the country and around the world with bishop long. and there are numerous allegations here that he engaged

in sexual conduct with them and here's one allegation here. it says, quote, defendant long has a pattern and practice of singling out a select group of young male church members and using the authority as bishop to bring them to a point of engaging in a sexual relationship. the allegations here, very detailed. >> and john, let's talk about those two men making the allegations. these are plaintiffs in lawsuits who are not innocent victims. they're men on the wrong side of the law several times before and includes charging with breaking into bishop long's office in june to steal items such as jewelry and property that they could get cash, cash for so let your viewers be the judge of their actions. we can't get into individual demands. that's part of the legal battle. >> right. >> that's a battle that our legal defense team will have to respond to at some point. >> the break-in is detailed in

the lawsuit. their attorney says that they were lashing out at bishop long in that break-in that they stole personal items from him to hurt him for what he had done to them. >> this is actually, john, a case of retaliation and a shake-down for money by men with serious credibility issues trying to mount their own defense. this is something that went from 48 hours of contact with the attorney flinging outrageous demands to this dog and pony show we are seeing that began yesterday. >> can you explain what the nature of the relationship was prior to the allegations being made, prior to the alleged break-ins? what was bishop long's relationship with these two teens? >> they were young men part of the program at new birth and outside of that i can't speak to a relationship they had with bishop long. they also were employed by the church as church employs a

number of young people and others. >> when you say you can't speak to the nature of it, what of these e-mails and text messages that seem to indicate there was, at least, you know, some significant contact? >> whoops. we seem to have lost him. obviously on a cell phone there. >> we are getting information from you guys in the media and responding to kiran, we have not even seen the lawsuit ourselves so that's something that our attorneys have to go through and they'll look at it. they'll respond to it in the appropriate form. >> and meantime, when's been the reaction of the congregation? this is a church with at least 25,000 members. a big part of the community there. what is the reaction? >> oh, kiran. last night, it was a very spirit-filled worship service from a church family that loves its spiritual leader very much. bishop long has done not only

good thing but great support throughout the world and drawing strength from his family, the new birth families, friends and supporters standing with him. >> do you deny, though, art, that bishop long had a very close relationship with the two men in question and traveled extensively with him? >> a number of people travel with bishop and he knows them. but listen. there are a lot of things, john, out there being said and before rushing to any judgment on bishop long and this court of public opinion taking place right now, really do hope that you would look at these guy who is are throwing mud and just consider the source. >> sure. >> we'll learn a lot more. >> obviously, looking at all aspects of this case but did bishop long ever share a bedroom with either one of these men? >> that is one of the allegations that we learned through the media that's being made by the attorneys and something that the defense team will have to respond to. >> you don't have a response at

this point? >> i do not have a response for that. that's something the defense team would have to respond to. >> all right. art franklin, it is good of you to spend time with us. thanks so much for joining us. much appreciated. >> all right. thank you. >> all right. so we heard from them and, of course, i'm sure much more will come out of this throughout the day. >> the attorney b.j. bernstein joining kyra phillips here, as well. >> stick around for all of that. meantime, we are also talking about something that's been happening and been getting worse lately and that's the president's approval ratings. they've dropped in some areas. however, the first lady still a hot commodity. her approval ratings especially among democrats very high and doing her part to help out heading back to the campaign trail for the midterm elections and getting that from mark preston. kfc's latest ad campaign. its got people talking. they're hiring college women to promote their double down sandwich using a certain part of

the anatomy to get the point across. we'll have that story coming up for you. 20 minutes after the hour.

23 minutes past the hour. welcome back. it is time for us to get down to business. planning a trip over the thanksgiving holiday and you haven't booked yet -- be ready to pay. >> waiting to find out if i can go somewhere first. >> yeah, i know. got to get the days off approve sod that you can get out there paying 10% more over last year. >> yay. >> average cost of a domestic round trip flight over thanksgiving, they got you, most traveled time of the year, $384. >> you want to go somewhere? pay up! kfc using buns to promote no buns. the restaurant recruiting

college coeds to be billboards. the double down is a sandwich where the chicken is actually the buns. >> horrible for you. and, you know, the ironic part is eating a lot of them you wouldn't fit in the sweat pants giving out to the girls. >> high calorie? >> two fried pieces of chicken and then inside is more cheese and -- >> i don't know. >> how much it? like 1,200 calories or something insane with the whole meal. >> eat two of them and one here and one here. >> exactly. that's its own advertisement. you don't need the lettering. a free beer on budweiser, the king of beers -- >> wash down the double downs. >> exactly. trying to get you to buy their beer again. anheuser busch says it plans to give out 500,000 free bud samples in bars to boost sales among the under 30 crowd and plans to partner with facebook to get a free beer on the 22nd

birthday. what happens after the official united nations meetings end? parties begin. richard roth hits the u.n. party circuit. five cocktail parties in 65 minutes. coming up next. >> you're required to dance like that. to save me a boatload of money on my mortgage -- that would be awesome! [sarcastically] sure. like that will happen. don't just think about it. spend 10 minutes at lendingtree and save up to $272 a month.

♪ i want to celebrate and live my life ♪ ♪ baby let's go ♪ because we going to rock this club ♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. 27 minutes past the hour. your top stories a couple

minutes away. first, though, an am original. world leaders are getting down to business this week at the united nations so you know what that means. >> that means that after they get down to business, they're going to get down. parties are on. richard roth trying to keep up with all of the partying. >> we have to straighten your tie. >> trying to recover from the lead-in. anyway, parties, receptions. general assembly in full swing. it is parties, receptions, i'm too busy this week to go to all of them because i have to be up early to be with you. i'll take you inside what it's like and tried a marathon run through hello, ambassador. >> tonight's not going the learn a lot of news. americans are pretty disciplined even when they drink. >> reporter: we are awaiting the

arrival of ambassador rice. >> a pal up to the press corps. personally hoping when susan rice comes in and ask her about darfur and say something noteworthy. >> reporter: in the middle of the perfect pint bar, a question about darfur, sudan? >> i am. >> reporter: excuse me, excuse me. hi. are you a journalist? >> no. i'm a deputy director at the press office. the u.s. mission. >> reporter: i keep close touch with the u.s. mission to the u.n. and i know the entire staff explicitly. well, we made it to the first event. once again, just like last evening, food and drink and journalists. this is the fellowship reception. >> it is like running a marathon and you have to make it to mile 26 without collapsing. >> reporter: the renovation, you can't just take an easy staircase or escalator to the event. we have to go through a u.n. garage and now the united nations development program

photo awards. it's an event about eradicating global poverty using photographs to show people in misery around the world and it's hard to really eat cheese. i'm trying to show how you go to five events in 65 minutes. you are the author in the crowd there. is it worth to come to hear you? >> this is a wonderful environment physically because just within a few blocks of where we're standing you have some of the greatest concentration of interest and fascination about global affairs. >> reporter: author steven kinsler giving a talk about journalism and life overseas. i have to go to the libyans hosting a reception for ambassadors and journalists event. well, we're going in. this is the diplomatic receiving line. you make nice and present a good impression, shake hands. you may not know the wife's name but you're going to try it. hello, ambassador. >> hello. >> thank you for your openness.

>> thank you, also. i'm richard roth of cnn. >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you for coming. >> reporter: thank you. well, i still don't know her name but we'll find out by the time the evening's done. well, not every u.n. party looks the same, of course. it could be a private dinner with your name attached to a design seat next to the ambassador's wife or a quick run-flu at the 192 u.n. ambassadors know all too well. there's bigger parties. the german chancellor had one. i couldn't go. >> did they have a band at heez? >> it's not a bar mitsvah, john. simple receptions and parties. >> anything mildly interesting? >> they do have the book. i remember once former german chancellor played the trumpet. things do happen at the parties. >> remember a -- >> not like new year's eve at these things. talking about serious topics but the ambassadors tell you they get the most work done at these

places. they see other dip plomats and t more done. >> did you later apologize to the deputy press secretary lady for not knowing her? >> yes. she is a big fan of cnn so it helped. i wasn't a bar fly trying to make chatter here. >> right. you had the cnn mike flag behind you. >> that helps. sometimes you want the cnn sign there and some circumstances other stories on the road you don't want it, seen for various conditions. >> we should have max doing analysis and found the parties as engaging as a typical soccer match. >> a party debate. but look. it's -- people get -- they don't like the u.n. and think it's parties y ies and talk but ther work there. >> thanks for getting up with us. as always, a pleasure. now a plan c in chile to save the stranded coal miners. a third rescue tunnel being drilled. officials are hoping that it

speeds up the rescue of the 33 trapped workers. digging wit a giant drill borrowed from an oil company. the chilean president says he hopes the miners will be out by late october or early november. the white house at war over afghanistan. getting its first peek at bob woodward's new book called "obama's war." and a lower profile war being waged in pakistan. and california's case of corruption on steroids according to the prosecutor. eight current and former city officials in bell, california, will be in court today. they're facing criminal charges accusing they drained the city's treasury to line their own pockets an ena story we are following closely here. the former city manager making about $800,000 a year and faces 53 corruption counts alone. time now for the latest news of the best political team on television and crossing the political ticker this morning, president obama touting the

accomplishments and trying to rally supporters in a new video. >> our senior political editor mark preston following that for us at the plolitics.com website and ed henry, as well. let's start with you, mark. what's going on? >> kiran, john, americans, 13 million americans waking up this morning to a new video message of president obama. it's a four-minute call to arms by the president to democrats and democratic supporters saying not only do they need to go out and vote in november, they also need to start donating to democratic candidates across the country and volunteering on these campaigns. obama says, look. special interests are poring millions of dollars in to try to return republicans to power. we need your help. in addition to that, we are seeing former reagan officials help fund a new ad campaign, a new national ad campaign, a play off the 1984 morning in america

series by the president reagan at that time talking about all the good things happening in the world. however, the new ad campaign by the reagan officials is called mourning in america saying president obama had failed leadership. an endown to the white house right now for interesting analysis and perspective from a very powerful player here in washington, d.c. ed henry's got the news on that. >> that's right, mark. cnn learned one of the most powerful business lobbyists in town saying it is not a slam dunk for republicans to control congress and that he believes democrats might actually hold on to the majority in the house. this is tom donahue, very powerful president of the u.s. chamber of commerce, he's sparred with the president over business policies but he's also pledged to spend upwards of $ 5 million to win control of congress and saying he's gone through the house race and he believes that republicans are going to lose some seats that they don't see coming right now an help democrats barely hold on

with maybe a slim majority and basically not anti-democratic year but an anti-establishment year that could hit incumbents in both parties and muse toik the ears of people here at the white house saying in private for a long time they think expectations are so low for democrats they might actually surprise some people on election day. >> wow. all right. we'll wait and see. thanks so much, ed. reminder to both of you -- thanks, mark. head to cnnpolitics.com for all of the latest news on the ticker. dell care candidate christine o'donnell swearing off the national media for the time being. ed rollins and susan molinari talk about all of that. ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there...

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39 minutes after the hour. delaware senate candidate and tea party favorite christine o'donnell says she is done with the national media. she sat down with sunny hannity on fox news last night for what she said is her last interview for national tv. >> it's off the table because

that's not going to help me get votes. i won't do anymore national media. this is my focus. delaware's my focus and the local media is my focus. >> she said she did last night's interview because she was in town on other video. here to talk about and the new video of sarah palin, cnn senior political analyst and republican strategist ed rollins and former new york congresswoman susan molinari. interesting strategy. goes on national television to say she is done with national tv. i've covered paren plenty of candidates who bypass the national media, going for the locals. i'm sure -- >> most candidates running for the senate would kill to have a cnn interview or what have you. in this particular case i think she gets nothing but trouble and has to focus on delaware. she has a short time frame here and seeing in two or three weeks and talking about her as a viable candidate or there's races starting to become viable.

>> let's ask you because you were a candidate. once upon a time. about her media strategy. she said that the media should be either banned from certain events or at least held back. i mean, i've been plenty of media pens myself. during presidential campaigns. not congressional come pains. did you have problems with the media and say keep them back or snout. >> no, no. i think there's -- i think there's no benefit to doing the national -- >> did you have to say where are they? >> yes, i did. exactly. doesn't anybody care about? >> please, please, cover my press conference. >> exactly. but, you know, look. i agree with ed 100%. there's no benefit to the maximum national exposure she is going to get. people do that because it brings in money, brings in out of town interest. she already has that. you know, being able to amass over $2 million i think in such a short period of time. she is doing debates and town halls and i think i heard today she is doing a debate that cnn will cover. >> yes.

wolf blitzer monitoring it. >> but there is no benefit for her not staying focused locally. as every campaign is and a state of delaware, it is a get out the vote campaign. >> there's been no interest whatsoever in the opponent. >> that's very true. >> he's the one saying where are they? >> right. i'll let you in my event. >> she did answer some questions or not depending on your perspective with sean hannity last night. use of campaign funds for personal expenses. she said she got behind a little bit on the mortgage doing pro bono work. she had to explain how she makes a living. here's what she said. >> i take non-profit clients. i do freelance work and when you're running for a campaign, you can't have a multi-client load. you just can't offer them the sort of service. i have one client right now i'm very proud of. i work part time for him.

>> what do you think? has she answered the questions -- >> she has a good personality. people are hurting and rea little to people behind in the mortgages and what have you. the critical thing for her is to make no mistakes. whatever she says has to be 100% accurate. she can't make it up or cover it up because she'll be -- that will be the issue. >> and while the truth is, she might say she wants the immediate i don't to distance and doubt what she is saying, there's no doubt the democratic senatorial committee will come in and fact check everything and her handlers that came in from washington, d.c. right now are telling her that to be totally straight up or will be the end of the campaign in the last few weeks. >> let's switch gears. sarah palin comes out with a new ad. people saying she looks like a candidate. take a look. >> the tea party movement is not a top down operation.

it's a ground up call to action forcing both parties to change the way that they're doing business and that's what it is. >> she is certainly positioning herself as at least the figure head of the tea party movement as we saw in the primaries, susan. a real political force to be reckoned with. >> no doubt. >> will it be the same type of force in the general election in november? >> i think it will be less of a force but i think it is a huge force. what the democrats are contending with right now is enthusiasm gap, right? we have independents who still -- >> no shortage of enthusiasm in the tea party. >> exactly. huge shortage of enthusiasm in the democratic party nationwide. coupled with the fact of independents by 2 to 1 favoring the republican party, it seems that the republicans can win a majority by having the tea party support them and be spokespersons for candidates as well as independents still saddling up to the bar. that's an amazing combination and one that could prove

successful for the party. >> ed, is the tea party becoming republican party? >> a very important segment of it and we should bring it in and listen to them and make them a part of it. they're the activists and volunteers and doing what the christian right did for us in the '70s and '80s and it was a lot of people wanting to push them away and they were an important part of the coalition. >> what do you think about sarah palin? is she positioning herself for a run in 2012 or just making money? >> it is hard to say, isn't it? looking at the political track record, it is amazing. after coming out as a vice president kacandidate and now h made herself a very important if not one of the most important spokes people in national politics today. i don't put anything past her. if she does not run for president, she will be an important voice for people to listen to after the next election and looking at the candidates as they queue up. >> and some new governors -- >> would you run her as a candidate? >> i have haley bar bour.

i have more candidates than i know what to do with next time. >> will she be viable? >> she has to run a real campaign. i remember reagan in 1980 -- >> can't do it by twitter or facebook. >> barely beat us in iowa and gave him life. you have to do it the way people have always done it. yule yeahny skipped iowa. tough do iowa. >> so if i were to ask you two for a wager, does she run or not? >> i would say she runs. >> i would say she runs but i think ed's absolutely right and we have, you know, stars like governor christie who, you know, taken up a lot of national stage with the reforms. great candidates like john kasic and probably going to be governor of iowa. she was a spitfire as a young member of congress and balanced the budget for the first time in 40 years and we have stars after this election. >> we'll see if they can claim a little tiny piece of the spotlight at sarah palin right

now. susan, ed, great to see you this morning. thank you so much for coming in. kiran? >> all right. thanks. summer ends tonight but the heat is sticking around. rob marciano's tracking that and plus another disturbance in the caribbean that could become our next named storm. rob comes to talk about it coming up. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again.

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beautiful shot from st. louis, missouri. earlier today we said there was kroegs on that. >> i can see it. >> you cannot see it. stainless steel. whatever it is. it's beautiful this morning. the arch. 68 degrees right now. >> rusty arch. >> yeah. it's a new drink in st. louis. rob mars i don't that following it for us waving good-bye to summer. turtle neck weather and short sleeved. i'm confused. >> spring colors. >> brown buttons. >> that's what happens. you get really confused. what do i wear? >> stand eggs on the top. >> i thought that was the vernal equin equinox. >> i'm confused.

this one is lisa. next one is matthew. getting that in a second. first, igor, it slammed believe it or not newfoundland, canada, yesterday. look at the video. dramatic stuff. didn't make a direct hit but did some damage with hurricane force winds. rainfall swelling rivers there about 19 communities cut off at one point because of the torrential rain and storm surge there. now talk about what potentially could be matthew. this is our disturbance in the caribbean gathering strength. there's a red box around it meaning over 48 hours pretty good chance it develops into a tropical depression if not a tropical storm so we'll monitor this. forecast to be close to the gulf of mexico next week. this in the gulf of mexico, remnants of karl or a flow of karl, now. rainfall over texas with flooding conditions of corpus christi to brownsville. more today and then slow, drying out process and rain and moisture from tropical storm georgette. it was in the pacific and now

flowing up into arizona, new mexi mexico. they have flash flood warnings out because of that moisture. we have a front in the midwest trying to push down to the south not having a great deal of success with that and temperatures remain high over the next few days. in alabama, 100 degrees. slum yeah, south carolina, 98 degrees. this is summer at least for now. right? 86 degrees in st. louis. 92 degrees in atlanta. but tonight, at 11:09, yeah. that's right. fall arrives. so break out the pumpkins and get the leaf blower out and get ready for the fall. it will be close to 90 degrees over the next couple of days. >> get ready for the fall. bring out the tank top. >> pumpkin pie on the sidewalk. for predictions of a dangerous hurricane season, we have done well so far. >> well above average and the numbers very much above average

for sure and hit by a hurricane, the u.s. has done remarkably well and hoping that luck continues and the numbers indicating probably to see few more storms before the season is done. >> still out there. just the track, been lucky with the track. >> like it. >> thanks, rob. fda is a step closer to approving gentlemen net click engineered salmon, a fish that grows twice as fast as a conventional farmed relative. does it sound fishy? would you eat it? asking those questions this morning.

♪ oh it's my life four minutes now to the top of the hour. time for your am house call, stories about your health. the food and drug administration is right now considering whether to allow genetically engineered salmon or a franken-fish sold in grocery stores. >> the industry says this genetically altered salmon grows twice as fast as regular salmon but besides that is almost exactly the same. critics are not necessarily convinced. earlier we spoke with the director of food policy at

rutgers university and asked him if this genetically engineered fish really is safe to eat. >> you have to wonder if you're bathing a fish in growth hormones 12 months of the year opposed to staging it in seasons or stages might the fish -- might you be introducing something into the food chain to react to? >> that's a question that the fda really has looked at and you as a human being are bathed in growth hormone all the time, as well. it is a question of really how much. this is a natural hormone. it's not anything unnatural. it just allows the fish to grow winter and summer. >> well, if approved that fish would be the first animal specially engineered just for food and he talked about the fact that a lot of food we eat, vast majority is genetically modified in some way from corn to soy to tomatoes. >> when you look, though, with the comparison between the wild fish and then the genetically engineered fish, the same age

and see how much bigger it is, it does make you wonder what's going on inside the fish there, doesn't it? >> and whether it's labeled. we may not know if what we're eating is genetically engineered or not. >> tip, if it's really big, might be genetically engineered. and natural minerals x give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers.

then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. in 2008 i quit venture capital to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email.